Monday, 16 July 2012
Indian Mutiny Memorial...
Been somewhat tied up with the real world, but I thought you might like to see a photo I took of a memorial for those that fell as part of the Second Battalion, Military Train during the Indian Mutiny which can be found in the cloisters of Bristol Cathedral.
Sunday, 8 July 2012
Pondering Persians...
Well my Wargames Factory prize turned up this week. As suspected HMRC decided to have its cut and together with what USPS decided to take out of it the $100 voucher has effectively turned into $25 - ho hum! As I would have bought the Samurai Cavalry anyway I wasn't too annoyed and at the end of the day it is a pile of free miniatures which you can't turn your nose up at...
Now to decide what to do with the figures, and indeed find out a little bit more about what they are supposed to be. I found a couple of useful blogs with posts on the Wargames Factory figures and Persians in general, namely Grimsby Wargaming and Satrap Miniatures. This has lead me to deciding to organise the models into at least four Sparabara/archer units with three ranks of eight infantry.
Of course by buying the Persian Infantry sprue bundles, whilst escaping having any of the terrible kneeling figure that is in the boxed set, I have a 50/50 make up of spear and bow when what I really need is one-third/two-thirds in favour of archers. I have 12 spare infantry which gives me another six bows plus some from the cavalry box set I have but I will be a few bows short. Nor sure what I am going to do but there may be some crafty use of hand weapon armed troops in the rear ranks if I can't get hold of more bow arms. That said I will need to buy some more cavalry at some stage which will free up some more bows so...
Whilst I wasn't planning to go down the Persian route, looking at some of the subject troops, the old Vendel Egyptian Marines for example, there is more variety than I thought and they would make a great Men of the East style fantasy army as well as being able to crush the impertinent Greeks.
Anyway I must stop going off at a tangent and get back to the Orcs and Zulus...
Now to decide what to do with the figures, and indeed find out a little bit more about what they are supposed to be. I found a couple of useful blogs with posts on the Wargames Factory figures and Persians in general, namely Grimsby Wargaming and Satrap Miniatures. This has lead me to deciding to organise the models into at least four Sparabara/archer units with three ranks of eight infantry.
Of course by buying the Persian Infantry sprue bundles, whilst escaping having any of the terrible kneeling figure that is in the boxed set, I have a 50/50 make up of spear and bow when what I really need is one-third/two-thirds in favour of archers. I have 12 spare infantry which gives me another six bows plus some from the cavalry box set I have but I will be a few bows short. Nor sure what I am going to do but there may be some crafty use of hand weapon armed troops in the rear ranks if I can't get hold of more bow arms. That said I will need to buy some more cavalry at some stage which will free up some more bows so...
Whilst I wasn't planning to go down the Persian route, looking at some of the subject troops, the old Vendel Egyptian Marines for example, there is more variety than I thought and they would make a great Men of the East style fantasy army as well as being able to crush the impertinent Greeks.
Anyway I must stop going off at a tangent and get back to the Orcs and Zulus...
Monday, 2 July 2012
Tankfest 2012
Saul and I went to Tankfest 2012 at the Bovington Tank Museum yesterday and, despite catching the sun to such an extent that I am doing a great impression of a beetroot today, we had a great day out. I think Saul's comment that "they seem even bigger when they're moving" really encapsulated the experience, the noise, dust and smell of diesel adding to the day.
There were lots of tanks, armoured cars, APC's recovery vehicles etc on show and whilst I have posted a few here, there are more on my Facebook page here if you fancy some more "tank porn".
In addition there were a number of WW1 and WW2 re-enactment groups including some equipped as Russians (which made a nice change from the endless German re-enactment groups). The WW1 lads got the opportunity to put on a mock battle complete with the replica Mark IV and dogfighting planes above which was very entertaining even if we got coated in a layer of choking dust from the explosions of the replica 1916 artillery barrage!
Vehicle wise I know everyone raves about "The Tiger" and yes, it is great to see it running (though personally I'd like to see a Panzer III), but my highlight was the wonderfully eccentric Matilda I running around the area. Definitely the ugly duckling out of the whole pond, but I like it!
Overall a great day and I'd recommend it to anyone, it certainly is better to see tanks moving (or being towed in the unfortunate Black prince's case) than sat on display in a shed under artificial lights...
There were lots of tanks, armoured cars, APC's recovery vehicles etc on show and whilst I have posted a few here, there are more on my Facebook page here if you fancy some more "tank porn".
In addition there were a number of WW1 and WW2 re-enactment groups including some equipped as Russians (which made a nice change from the endless German re-enactment groups). The WW1 lads got the opportunity to put on a mock battle complete with the replica Mark IV and dogfighting planes above which was very entertaining even if we got coated in a layer of choking dust from the explosions of the replica 1916 artillery barrage!
Vehicle wise I know everyone raves about "The Tiger" and yes, it is great to see it running (though personally I'd like to see a Panzer III), but my highlight was the wonderfully eccentric Matilda I running around the area. Definitely the ugly duckling out of the whole pond, but I like it!
Overall a great day and I'd recommend it to anyone, it certainly is better to see tanks moving (or being towed in the unfortunate Black prince's case) than sat on display in a shed under artificial lights...
